Tag: california kids health insurance

The largest health insurance companies in California will be raising their average rates by approximately 8 to 14 percent for hundreds of thousands of policyholders with individual coverage, leaping ahead of the overall medical care costs. According to government data, within the last year, the national average cost of products and services associated with health care increased by 3.6 percent. However, the insurance premiums have continued to climb at a more rapid rate within the state. The rate increases were defended by the California insurance companies, which said that they…

Consumer Watchdog, a top consumer rights group from California, is working to divert the attention of the 2012 election away from the Obama administration’s health care overhaul in favor of a state ballot measure that seeks a public option, stricter premium oversight, and a rollback of 20 percent for insurance rates. The initiative by this Santa Monica-based group is aimed at the ballot in California in November 2012. Consumer Watchdog is the same group that brought about the landmark ballot measure in 1988, Proposition 103, which set cost and regulatory…

The Department of Health and Human Services announced on Friday, August 12, 2011, that California would be receiving over $38 million from the $185 in total funds that were being distributed among 13 states and Washington D.C., in order to assist with the development of state health insurance exchanges which are required under the nationwide health reform laws that went into place last year. On the same day, the Department of the Treasury, in conjunction with the HHS, issued the proposed rules that the states would need to follow for…

A new bill in California is seeking to help those with chronic pain disorders obtain medications through both Medi-Cal and private insurance companies. While the majority of the state’s insurers already provide coverage for pain medications, there is room for improvement according to legislators. California lawmakers believe that the process of trial and error that companies currently employ is unreasonable. The process leaves many chronic pain sufferers to deal with the pain while the companies try to figure out what is the most cost effective painkiller. Currently, insurers require that…